1 Year Stats

Ryleigh is ONE YEAR OLD!!!!! 

Weight: 22lbs
Height: 30"


EATING
Several changes here.  Another possible allergy is beets.  My kid has the most random allergies. 

She drinks usually five 6-7oz. bottles a day.  We have been slowly mixing in some whole milk to her bottles of breastmilk and she doesn't even seem to notice a difference which is awesome so far.  She finally, out of the blue, decided she was interested in a sippy cup and has now figured that out for water.

With table food, we have learned she wants to be a "big girl" and by that, I mean that she doesn't like us cutting her food up into tiny pieces and refuses almost all purees from me anymore.  She prefers to have something larger to take bites of.  For instance, she hates cut up banana, but if we give her half a banana to bite off of, she will eat it. Same thing with cantaloupe and mini pancakes.

Foods she has tried-- refried beans, chicken noodle soup, cool whip, yogurt bites, puffs and lil'crunchies from Gerber, steamed carrots, cut up banana, cut up peach, cantaloupe, parmesan cheese straws, Maple flavor mini-pancakes, tater tots

Foods she loves--guacamole, crescent rolls, breadsticks, potato soup, half a banana, fried pickles, animal crackers, Garden Tomato & Veggie Dip Gerber Crunchies, Blueberry & Purple Sweet Potato Puffs from Pluum, Spinach Apple Kale teething crackers from Pluum,  mashed potatoes, cocktail meatballs, brownies, oreo truffles, chicken & rice


TEETHING
We now have all front 8 teeth!  She seems to be working on her pre-molars lately and is not happy about it. They seem to really be hurting her which of course kills me. Frozen teethers have been our friend, although they only offer temporary relief. I can feel the top, right one starting to bud, but none of the others are up enough yet.  Poor thing :(

SLEEPING
Sometimes a little restless, and there have been a few nights where she woke up and took a partial bottle sometime between midnight & 3am.  I usually put Tylenol or teething tablets [as a last resort] in that bottle to help her with teething pain, which is the cause of the tossing & turning.  Other than that, still doing very well and sleeps 11-12hrs a night.
 

ACTIVITY
More and more Walking! Even though she still crawls if she wants to get somewhere quickly.  She is getting more confident by the day and taking more steps at a time.  She has now walked all the way across our living room several times.  She is also pretty hilarious with her dancing.  Baby girl cannot hear music without dancing.  Rocking her shoulders, swaying her hips, and her new signature move that we like to refer to as Serving up the Pizza [think, arm out, palm up, moving forward and backward haha]

She now says/has said:
 "Dada"
"Mama"
"Papa" only once (my father-in-law)
"Kk" referring to Kona
"Ssssssssssssss"
"Thhhhhhhh"
"Kkkkkk"
"Ba ba ba ba"
"Ta ta ta ta"
"Guh"
"RrrrrLLl" <--Her version of Ryleigh that she's copied us saying a couple times.
"Go, Go, Go!"
"Ko" <--Kona
"Reee" or "Eeese"<--Reece
"Cak" <----Clap
"Hi"
"Hi Dada"
"Daw" <---Dog
"Gog"  her other version of dog
"Hey duh" her version of "Hey there"
"Hey"
"Bye Bye"
"Bah-Buh" <--"Baby" for her babydoll
"Kak-kuh"  <---cracker
"Na-Na"  for Banana
"Diapuh" diaper
"Ah Wubbya" I love you
"Ahmee" Amen
"yeah"
"whoa"
"uh ooo" for Uh Oh!
"Ba Ba" for requesting her bottle


Clicking her tongue
Giving kisses...her human version [open mouth] and dog version [open mouth w/tongue sticking out!]
making the sound of a rolling "R" (like in Spanish)
Waving Hi & Bye bye
She gives hugs, but only to her babydoll.  It's precious.


DIAPERING
Size 3, and we have found a new love in Pampers Cruisers. They seem to allow less blow-outs than Luvs and absorb great overnight.


 CLOTHES
 She's a little all over the place.  She fits 12m or 18m onesies.  She can fit into some jackets & vests that are 9m, 12m, or 18m.  She can fit into a couple pairs of 9m fleece pants, and she wears 12m or 18m pants.  Pretty much, the larger sizes are nice for added length but her waist still fits the smaller ones also. She's in 12m footed pajamas but they're getting a little snug in length.




 SPECIAL FIRSTS 

--First toy obsession - her babydoll

--Superbowl game

--We got her to do "touchdown" putting her arms in the air twice. She hasn't done it again since.

--Requesting food [asking for a Kak-kuh when I put her in her highchair and Ba-Ba for her bottle]

--Signature dance move [Serving up the Pizza]

--Desserts-brownies & birthday cake!!

--Birthday Party!!!

 

 

 

 

Ryleigh's Birth Story :)

Well, it's been a while since my last post because we have been busy with a newborn!  We made it to 38 weeks and 4 days, and Ryleigh Marie was born on Friday, February 14th!

We had a huge [by Southern standards] snow & ice storm that week, and my office was closed Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  I slept in a little, woke up around 9:30am, and was hanging out with the dogs while eating my breakfast and relaxing.  I felt just sort of "off" all morning.  I thought maybe the Braxton Hicks contractions were throwing me off, or maybe since I just woke up I didn't eat enough and my stomach still felt empty.

Over the next couple of hours, that feeling didn't go away, and I decided maybe a shower would help.  I was also planning to make a trip to Walmart afterwards to get some dog food and other necessities.  By the time I got out of the shower, I was feeling really crampy and decided I just wanted to lay down and take a nap.  I woke up around 1:15 and when I didn't feel much better I just stayed in bed and watched TV.  Well, by 2pm these pains were coming much more frequently and I thought maybe I should take out my phone and use my Contraction Tracker app.  I still wasn't sure if this was labor, but I wanted to start timing to see if maybe this was contractions.  They were all over the place, 4 minutes then 8 minutes then 2 minutes then 11 minutes then 6 minutes...Which threw me off because in child birth class they made me think that contractions would be at more regular intervals.  I watched TV and tracked them until a little after 3pm and I decided I needed to call my doctor's office.  I spoke to the on-call nurse [offices were closed because of the storm] and she said it sounded like the beginnings of labor and to keep tracking for another hour and call her back if there were any changes or if they were more consistent and frequent.  As we hung up the phone she said "Well honey, it's Valentine's day AND a full moon tonight, and you know we believe in those types of things! I think you may be having this baby before the end of the weekend."  Over the next hour I kept tracking and they were still at all different intervals, but those intervals were all 6 minutes or less.  I called Jake around 4 and told him to try to finish up working, make sure everything was ready for work tomorrow, and come home because we might need to go to the hospital.  He finished up quickly and got home around 5pm.  At this point I was finally mostly convinced I was having real contractions [you have to understand that I didn't want to be that first time mom who shows up at the hospital for false alarms that are just gas pains, and I really didn't think she would come that early].  Jake showered and we were going to quick install the car seat, which was on our to-do list for the weekend and we hadn't gotten to it yet, but by the time he got out of the shower the contractions were more frequent and getting much more painful.  We quick finished packing Jake's and the baby's hospital bags, got my bag, and grabbed the uninstalled car seat to head to the hospital.  We knew that all the security guards at the hospital were certified to install car seats so they could help Jake if he needed it before we came home.

Still tracking, the contractions finally became regular intervals of 3 minutes apart while we were on our way up the interstate to the hospital.  I was in a lot of pain by this point...there may have been some yelling, cursing [which I kept apologizing to Jake for because I felt like I shouldn't be cursing because our baby was causing the pain...haha!] and hitting the inside of the car door.  My sweet, sweet husband was trying to help me and told me to remember the breathing techniques from child birth class....to which I told him "I love you and I know you don't want to see me in pain, but please stop now!" We made it to the hospital in about 35 minutes.  I don't want to know how fast Jake was driving because it's a 40 minute drive without road construction delays or traffic.  We were headed there during rush hour on a Friday....

We got to the hospital at 6:35pm and I could barely walk or stand during contractions.  I kept telling people I was in labor and just wanted an epidural.  We were standing at the nurses station checking in at the maternity ward, and I just remember being aggravated because I had pre-registered and I didn't understand why the girl kept asking me all of these questions like my name, birth date, social security number, address, etc.  After what seemed like an eternity they got me into a room, took a urine sample, and started hooking up the contraction and fetal heart rate monitors to my belly.  I kept asking for an epidural, and once the nurse saw that I was having real contractions she checked to see how dilated I was, to which we found out I was already at 9cm.  That was the first total shock moment for everyone because we realized this baby was going to be born soon...At some point the OB showed up--not my normal doctor but a different one from my practice whom I had met before and I remember being relieved that it was her because I liked her a lot.  They broke my water since it still hadn't.  I am forever grateful to the wonderful anesthesiologist because I was told it was up to his discretion for whether or not he would give me the epidural since my urine test results weren't back yet.  Bless that man because he said he understood that sometimes we just needed to do these things, and he turned me on my side while I was laying down and gave me the epidural.  That took about 15 minutes to totally kick in.  The baby wasn't handling the epidural well and her heart rate started to drop.  The gave me an oxygen mask because it was the quickest way to get her more oxygen, and they had me turn to the side.  Those tricks seemed to work because her heart rate went back up to normal.  They checked me and I was 10cm so we were ready to start pushing.  The next contraction came and I pushed three times, and then baby's heart rate started dropping again.  We agreed to let them use the vaccuum to try to help her out quicker, and got ready to push for the next contraction.  They tried the vaccuum but it popped off right away, and while I was pushing 3 more times my nurse asked me to try to get a forth push because the baby would be out.  I did, and she was!

Ryleigh Marie was born at 8:14pm on Valentine's day :)  Jake and I were both in such shock that she had arrived so quickly, and we were both just in awe looking at her.  It was so surreal.  They laid her on my belly to clean her off and we were both holding her, then Jake went over with the nurses to weigh, measure, and be with her while they were doing all of their testing and getting her under the heat lamp.  Her temperature was low, and kept hovering at 97 degrees, so she got an extra long stay under the heat lamps until her temp was finally up to 98 degrees.  Jake stayed with her for that and then they brought her over to me to do skin-to-skin on my chest.  All we could do was kiss her and stare at her, and couldn't believe that she was finally here!

  

25th Birthday Weekend Recap :)

I had a great 25th Birthday weekend!  Saturday morning my parents came up to visit, and we went out to Windy Hill Orchard's Apple Festival.  It sprinkled a little on us when we first got there, but other than that the weather was nice.  We got to feed some animals, eat some cider donuts and drink some cider!  My dad and Jake did the Hard Cider tasting.  After that we quick snapped this picture by their pumpkins :)

Such a good picture of me and my hubby [..and Ryleigh making her presence known nowadays!]...

After the Orchard we went to Empire 2 for lunch and played in their cornhole tournament.  It was a lot of fun, but sadly we did not come even close to win.

Saturday night was some girl time and window shopping with friends, then made chocolate & pecan covered apples....There are photos of that somewhere but they will never see the light of day! Let's just say that the chocolate was not set before we decided to devour them, so it was a little messy to say the least!

Sunday [my actual birthday] started off with a lazy, snuggly morning watching overloads of New Girl on Netflix with Jake...and the treat of breakfast in bed, in the form of these bad boys:

...Let's just call it a recent craving...

Then, got ready and met a couple friends at the Upscale WeeSale.  It was an interesting experience!  I ended up finding some pretty cute little outfits, mostly jumpers/dresses, for little miss!  I was impressed with the nice brands that they had [Ralph Lauren, The Children's Place, Janie & Jack, Gymboree] and most clothing items were priced around $4-6.  The last day prices were cut in half, so we ended up paying $1.50-3 for each of these:

 

 

Black corduroy dress with matching bloomer, 6-9 months from Baby Gap  $3.00

Brown and Pink ruffled leggings, 6 months from Carter's  $2.25 for the set 

 

Jean & Plaid jumper, 6-9 months from The Children's Place $1.50

Autumn Plaid jumper, 6 months from Gymboree $1.50

 

Khaki embroidered jumper, 6 months from Gymboree  $1.50

Jean Capris, 6 months from Janie & Jack  $1.50

 

and my absolute favorite for many reasons [UGA colors, super cute, plaid, and still had tags on!]

Red & Black plaid jumper, 6 months from Ralph Lauren  $3.00

 

Yes, ladies and gents, those are serious deals!  I also got myself a pair of black maternity leggings that were Ingrid & Isabel for only $3.00! 

 

The grand total for everything came to $18.99 with sales tax :)  Even Jake was proud of those deals!

 

 

 

I ended my birthday with a fun dinner with some friends and Jake's side of the family at...wait for it...Charandas! You were surprised, weren't you?! haha we do love that place :)

 

I've learned I need to take more photos...

It has become so clear to me that I really suck at remembering to take photos.  I get so caught up in the fun time that we're having that I always forget to whip out the camera or my phone.  So, unfortunately you don't get to see any cute pics of the holidays, but we have had such a great time!  So, where to begin...

I guess the first of our festivities started with April & Jeremy's annual tacky Christmas sweater party.  It was so much fun again, just like last year!  Although this year ended up staying a little bit more sane than last year which was nice, and we took the party to the bar instead of staying at their house the whole time, which I know must have worked out a bazillion times better for them!  Entertaining at home is so much fun but there's always that one person who has to break something sometimes the cleanup can be excruciating.

Following that came my company's Christmas Dinner which was at Del Frisco's in Charlotte.  Jake and I had never been there before and the food was amazing!  I got the crab cakes and Jake got one of the steak specials.  They also have the BEST calamari I've ever tasted.  It's seriously like heaven in your mouth.  Instead of serving it with marinara sauce like most places I've been, albeit they were Italian restaurants, Del Frisco's serves theirs covered in an Asian glaze, similar to what comes on Orange Chicken or General Tso's.  YUM.  I also had my first ever Celebrity sighting.  After narrowly missing Vince Vaughn and Kevin James on the elevator in Chicago and not seeing a single celebrity in Las Vegas for a week, who knew that I'd see my first celeb sighting in good ol' Charlotte.  Who?  Ric Flair.  Don't recognize the name?  He's this guy...

From the great world of WWE.  I recognized him but never knew his name because my family was never big into wrestling.  He still pretty much looks the same.  He's no Vince Vaughn, but it was pretty cool to be standing less than a foot away from him at the bar in Del Frisco's.

After that comes our Christmas visit to see my Grandpop and some others from my Dad's side of the family down in Mount Pleasant.  We don't get down there a lot so it was nice to see them, and my Aunt Kerri was home visiting from India.  We watched the new Bourne movie, which I really enjoyed, then exchanged gifts and had a nice traditional holiday meal--ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, wine, etc.

On Christmas Eve, we just slept in and relaxed, then went to church and dinner with Jake's mom, sister, and brother.  His stepdad was sick with a stomach virus the whole week so he didn't get to participate in anything :(  We went to their church in Lake Wylie, and I always enjoy getting to see different churches, especially when they are all beautifully decorated at Christmas.  It was a neat candlelight service but visiting other churches always makes Jake and I really realize how much we love our church, Allison Creek Presbyterian.  It's technically in York I guess but it's only about 10 minutes down the road from us since we're out here on the edge of Rock Hill.  Churches are so personal and everyone has different tastes, but we really love the community within our church and especially the delivery of the sermons.  I don't like feeling like I'm getting yelled at by the preacher if they have a harsh, excited delivery.  And I don't like being bored to tears by someone who is monotone.  We feel like our Pastor has the perfect balance and neither one of us ever gets bored or zones out during the sermon so we always feel like we really get something out of what he shares.  

On Christmas day we had Jake's side of the family and my friend Karen over for a brunch of waffles, fruit, casseroles, eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, etc.  TONS of food.  We exchanged gifts and just got to hang out for a while having some good conversation.  Then, we got to relax for a little bit and clean up before my side of the family arrived for Christmas dinner.  We had glazed ham with pineapple, seasoned green beans, steamed corn, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and then desserts.  It was a good thing that we only ate two meals all day because holy cow was it a lot of food.  I did the ham and the mac & cheese both in crock pots, which was nice and easy for me so that I could sit and enjoy socializing instead of cooking in the kitchen all day.  It worked out extremely well for the ham, and the mac & cheese was good but I think I would use a different recipe next time.  I found one recipe that uses evaporated milk, which I thought I had but it turned out that I had sweetened condensed milk, both are from Eagle Brand and I didn't pay attention to the label.  So, last minute I had to switch to a  different recipe that only used 2% milk and I think it would have been nicer and creamier with the other recipe.  For dessert, I made a cherry crumb pie and some "brooksters" which are a combo of chocolate chip cookies & brownies.  The cherry crumb pie tasted really good, but good Lord did it make a mess in my oven.  I would highly suggest that if you attempt one of these pies, put a cookie sheet on the rack underneath your pie because that nice filling will just bubble out over the edge and create a huge puddle of burnt mess in your oven.  Thank God our oven is self-cleaning, but that makes such a smoky mess that I haven't done it yet.  I did cook dinner in the oven two nights ago and some of the cherry mess burnt off but that is a headache that I'll be dealing with for a couple more weeks I expect...However, the brooksters, or as I always mix up and call them, "Brewsters," are like the best combination in the world.  Here is the super easy recipe:

"Brewsters"

--Prepare chocolate chip cookie mix from scratch as directed on bag of chocolate chips.

--Prepare brownies as directed on box of brownie mix.

Put paper liners in cupcake trays and fill 1/3-1/2 of the way with brownie batter.  Top with one scoop in each of the cookie batter.  

Bake as directed following the Chocolate Chip cookie recipe.  You may need to add 5-10 minutes to the time since brownies take longer to cook.  You will know they are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  

Easy and seriously delish!  These were definitely a crowd pleaser.  

..And what have we been doing since Christmas?  Well, I enjoyed the after Christmas sales and picked up some adorable wrapping paper for next year (so prepared, I know!) and decided to re-decorate our bookshelves in the living room.  I got tons of new frames and decorations from Hobby Lobby, TJMaxx, and Ross.  I cleaned off the bookshelves and have figured out the new frame placement, but now I just need to get the correct size and orientation of photos printed.  So, pictures of that to come!  We also celebrated New Years/Jake's 25th Birthday!  He has not been feeling too hot following the celebration but we did it up right at the Longbranch last night!  He is also very excited about his birthday gift, a new propane grill for on our boat!  With all of the time we are going to be spending out there now that we have the boat, I figured we would get tired of pb&j's or turkey sandwiches REAL quick.  Now we can do burgers, hot dogs, chicken, steaks, kabobs, you name it!  Now, if only this weather would get back into the 70's..........

Have a great day back at work tomorrow!

<3 Stacey

October!

Oh, October.... <3

The prettiest month of the year, in my opinion, and a month of such fun things! What's coming up this month for us?  -My Daddy's 50th birthday (tomorrow)-  -6 years together (10/13)-  -My birthday (10/20)-  -Halloween fun-  -Pumpkins-  -Pretty leaves-  -Scarves- -Football and football tailgates- -Haunted houses- -Spice-scented candles-  -Caramel Apples- -Apple Cider- -Friend's birthdays-   ...and at the end of the month, my LASIK eye surgery consultation!  I'm a little bit nervous but so excited for how much it could impact my everyday routine.  Little things that people don't even think of, like having to search for my glasses before I take the dogs downstairs to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, or not being able to snuggle while watching a movie at night because I don't want to fall asleep in my contacts and don't want to bend/break my glasses.  Being able to open my eyes under water at the pool or the lake because I won't need to worry about losing a contact lens.  It will probably make me get ready at least 10 minutes quicker because I will be able to actually see what I'm doing.  I can only image how helpful it would be once we have kids and I'm waking up at all hours of the night and needing to get ready quickly in the mornings.  Not to mention all of the money it will save over time, since I won't be shelling out $350 a year on contacts and saline solution for the rest of my life.  As long as the consult goes well, my surgery should be the morning of November 2nd at TLC in Charlotte!!      

And in closing, here are some shots from the boat this weekend...We went out with my friends Karen and Shanti, and Shanti's family.  Their little girl Reina is seriously the cutest ever:

cool view

The boys relaxing

me & Reina

driving the boat

see if she likes the water...

loving the water & her buddy Jake

just before sunset Friday evening

    More trips to come!

Leap of Faith!

Well, my photos are ready to go for the competition and I turn them in tomorrow morning.  I was pretty impressed with the print quality of Staples for the large format photographs.  The color came out very well, which was my main concern going into it.  They are also very quick! I chose simple, wide black frames that really make the color pop.  I think this is as good of an effort as I could be making for this competition, so it will be fun to see how this all plays out.  Even if nothing comes of it, I still enjoy getting my artwork out there and have it viewed in a public forum. 

Aside from that we have a busy day tomorrow with a birthday party and a wedding.  I haven't been to a wedding since our own, almost a year ago!! We have four that we are going to this summer so tomorrow is officially the start of wedding season :)

I am really hoping to get out to a driving range on Sunday afternoon since we didn't get to last weekend.  I am really trying to get back into golfing like I used to. 

Off to bed in a few, have a great weekend!

Easter Weekend!

I am so looking forward to this weekend! I think we are going to have so much fun. My bosses are awesome and decided to add Friday as a vacation day so tomorrow is my "Friday" :)

I am looking forward to relaxing, sleeping in on Friday morning, getting my hair cut, and all of the Easter/Brody's birthday celebrations! Our church does a sunrise Easter service at a house of one of our member's on the lake, and as beautiful as I know it will be I doubt we will make it. We had all intentions of going last year and couldn't force ourselves out of bed that early (7:30am service). This year I'm sure will be no different, but that is okay because we will be in the regular service with our friends and will get to see Miss Reina on her 1st Easter! After church on Sunday we are celebrating our "nephew" (really 2nd cousin) Brody's 1st birthday, which is really on the 13th. What a lucky little boy to have his first birthday on a Friday the 13th :) People laugh, but ever since Jake and I started dating I have always loved Friday the 13ths and thought of them as lucky since that is when he asked me to be his girlfriend <3 and as we all know that has turned out quite well!!

In other updates...we got our flowers planted in the front yard. We have a few large weeds that I would like to do something about but I do not have the energy to try to tackle right now, haha...Truth is, I am not really a plant person or yardwork person. However, I can do well with flowers. I just prefer to stay out of the dirt/bugs that live in it.

That's all for now, off to bed to have a productive day tomorrow.

Goodnight!

Plans for a New Year...

Quickly before I get into the New Year, I realized that I forgot to re-cap Christmas...we had a great weekend with our family. Saturday my parents came up to stay with us, and we went to the 11pm service at our church, then woke up Sunday to open presents and had our traditional family meal, lasagna. After that, we went to see Jake's family and had their traditional meal at his Aunt Teri's house for dinner. Jake loves his new golf clubs that I got him, my parents got him a golf bag, and my brother got him a matching golf accessory set. All in Georgia black & red, of course :) Jake wanted to get me a piece of jewelry to have and always remember our first married Christmas together, and got me a beautiful pair of diamond earrings!

Well, 2011 went by in a flash! I can't believe how much has happened over the past 12 months. A lot of first-time experiences for us--buying a home, getting married, going on our first big vacation (honeymoon), buying a new car, getting a new dog, remodeling our kitchen, getting a new job...also, for the first time, Jake's company now has its very own warehouse! I am so proud of him.

So, what is in store for next year? Learning how to file taxes as a married couple & our vacation to Las Vegas in May! I have also decided to start drawing more, and I went out last night and got some great deals on the makings for my new art corner. I am really excited and I have already got my first couple projects in mind...

What makes it better is that I got everything on sale! The storage tower is from Ross, and I got it 25% off because the feet aren't level (something my hubby can fix very easily). The easel is a French sketch-box style that can fold up and be portable, and has a center drawer for storage. I got it from Hobby Lobby, and I used their 40% off coupon this week to get it for $59 instead of $99. I also got a new sketchbook for 30% off. The canson drawing pads were B1G1 Free at Michael's, where I also picked up some packs of drawing pencils and charcoals for 40% off. The drawing board I already had from my freshman year at Winthrop. Now, I just need to find a stool and clip-on light. I also want to get some wall shelves or something to decorate that corner.


We are going to have fun this weekend! We are driving down to Mount Pleasant tonight for a late Christmas celebration with my grandfather, and then coming back up to Rock Hill tomorrow for New Years/Jake's 24th birthday festivities. We also have off work on Monday so it will be another nice long weekend!


Happy New Year :)